For all fans of the PC version of Civilization (any edition), you may be interested in the boardgame version of Civ (mainly designed on Civ III).
Playing Civ around a table with friends could be a totally new exciting experience! Never thought about that? Look at this picture...
Are you curious?
More pictures here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/images/game/30333
Civilization CHR is an alternate gaming system for "Sid Meier's Civilization: the Boardgame" published by Eagle Games (2002).
Consider it as a group-up rewrite of the original game still using all of the original components adding new cards and pieces.
The game mechanics are similar to the original one but enhanced and revised to make it a whole new experience for a typical "Civilization" fan.
This gaming system cannot be purchased because it is free
, so it has to be downloaded and "printed" from http://www.mindcreations.com
To play it you need the original Sid Meier's Civilization" from Eagle Games, that unfortunately, is no more available at stores; however quite often you can find it on ebay at cheap prices.
The original boardgame was flawed but was a good starting point to make an amazing Civ boardgame. That's why we have modded it
At the moment the game is in "public review & playtesting form" to get an immediate feedback from the gamers community, thus, it is considered complete but not publicily tested.
During Christmas 2006 the version 1.0RC1 has been presented to the public on BGG http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/30333 and as a public event in Rome http://www.mindcreations.com/projects/civilization/events/index.php
(pictures and flyer of the game in PDF). During 2007 has been released the version 1.0RC2 and while on the 11 january 2008, it has been released the version 1.0RC3, probably the last one before the final release. Today v1.0 is in the final stage and will be published in the near future.
For any question or discussion about CHR you can go on the dedicated forum
http://forum.mindcreations.com or reply directly to this post.
Civilization CHR goals are:
1) Add variety to game strategies
2) Reduce the "Risk effect"
3) Reduce Luck (introducing balancing rules)
4) Give a chance to catch up on to unlucky players
5) Implement some additional PC game rules
6) Increase realism and players interaction
7) General game speed up (slowed down by new rules)
8) Better time management in slow phases or deadlocks
9) Having more "suspence" with destabilizing or unpredictable events
10) Increase simultaneous player goals
As a result, for who already knows the original boardgame, these are the new features of Civ CHR:
Game setup
Greatly reduced initial luck to avoid excessive differences among players.
Civilizations
It is now possibile to choose a civilization type and obtain relative bonuses during the whole play session. There are 7 civilization types available.
Governments
Every player can choose to adopt a government type for his civilization at any time accepting pros and cons. This variant makes the boardgame more closer to the original PC game.
Strategy cards
These cards are mini objectives that, if completed, reward players with a lot of different prizes like gold, units, special bonuses and more.
War and rewards
With these new rules you can land and bombard with fleets and retreat with any unit. War is now more complex and strategically more interesting. If you win or just partecipate in a battle you get experience points that can be used later to get interesting prizes: a good reason to go to war. Even settlers can be captured!
Roads, railroads, docks and airports
It is now possible to build roads and upgrade it to railroads. Roads and railroads are used to speed up movements and commerce. A road represent also a dock and a railroad represent also an airport used to launch fleets and airplanes.
Resources
Gems and Wine are not the only worth having resources. Others resources have also special bonuses, depending on the Era.
Prospection & Terraforming
You can now prospect empty regions to have a second chance to discover something.
With terraforming you can even improve deserts, forests and mountains.
Barbarians & Civil war
When you discover a Minor Civilization you can encounter hostile barbarians.
During the early eras you can experience a civil war in your unhappy settlements.
Revolts
In unhappy cities you can experience revolts if you have a certain type of government, civilization, or military absence.
Revolutions
With some governments if you have more unhappy cities than happy ones your civilization will automatically engage a revolution.
Intelligence
Spies are now part of the game set. You can try to accomplish tricky missions to damage your opponents or as a support for war.
Obsolescence
City improvements do not cease to be useful after changing Era. Previous Era improvements have half value; you need two of them to make a city happy or productive. Improvements older that 2 Eras have to be considered obsolete and therefore eliminated.
Military units will never get obsolete.
Capital
Every player owns a Capital. This city is important for commerce, intelligence activity and other aspects.
Cultural influence
It is now possible to assimilate cities. If you are culturally advanced you can assimilate a city just being close to it. No military units are strictly necessary to get the job done.
Commerce
Commerce phase has been deeply revised to make trading more realistic and not feasible at every time and place
Unit upgrades
In addition to sell old units you can upgrade it, saving gold: restrictions apply.
Timed phases
Slow phases may be shortened using an hourglass: push on players who think about doing their moves just in their turn while in the rest of the game they are thinking to something else.
Fast startup
Some rules have been slightly modified to make the Ancient and Medieval Era shorter to play.
Spend most your playing time in last two Eras that are strategically more interesting.
Luxury and waste
Who earns a lot of gold is proportionally penalized with waste and luxury. This limitation helps other players to have a chance to gain some "positions" compared to rich civilizations that are earning more and more and are theoretically unreachable.
Nuclear weapons
After Fission discover who owns Rare Metals can build nuclear weapons.
Events
At each turn it can happen a good or bad event for any region or player. Among bad events there are natural disasters like volcanoes, hurricanes, plagues, etc. Depending on the intensity roll the natural event can be light or devastating. Certain type of events can subvert the game flow.
Who was eagerly waiting for a new game based on Civilization or was thinking that the original rules were in some way incomplete or buggy, now he can bring new life to his old box!
Note: this is not the one and only rewrite of this boardgame, you can find more on this page http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3633 and even here on Civ Fanatics http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=273983
The main difference between Civ CHR and other mods is game weight intended as complexity and length: if you want an epic civ experience go with Civ CHR, if you like more a light experience go with the other mods.
Enjoy!
Stefano Coletta
(CHR game designer)
Playing Civ around a table with friends could be a totally new exciting experience! Never thought about that? Look at this picture...
Are you curious?
More pictures here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/images/game/30333
Civilization CHR is an alternate gaming system for "Sid Meier's Civilization: the Boardgame" published by Eagle Games (2002).
Consider it as a group-up rewrite of the original game still using all of the original components adding new cards and pieces.
The game mechanics are similar to the original one but enhanced and revised to make it a whole new experience for a typical "Civilization" fan.
This gaming system cannot be purchased because it is free
, so it has to be downloaded and "printed" from http://www.mindcreations.comTo play it you need the original Sid Meier's Civilization" from Eagle Games, that unfortunately, is no more available at stores; however quite often you can find it on ebay at cheap prices.
The original boardgame was flawed but was a good starting point to make an amazing Civ boardgame. That's why we have modded it
At the moment the game is in "public review & playtesting form" to get an immediate feedback from the gamers community, thus, it is considered complete but not publicily tested.
During Christmas 2006 the version 1.0RC1 has been presented to the public on BGG http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/30333 and as a public event in Rome http://www.mindcreations.com/projects/civilization/events/index.php
(pictures and flyer of the game in PDF). During 2007 has been released the version 1.0RC2 and while on the 11 january 2008, it has been released the version 1.0RC3, probably the last one before the final release. Today v1.0 is in the final stage and will be published in the near future.
For any question or discussion about CHR you can go on the dedicated forum
http://forum.mindcreations.com or reply directly to this post.
Civilization CHR goals are:
1) Add variety to game strategies
2) Reduce the "Risk effect"
3) Reduce Luck (introducing balancing rules)
4) Give a chance to catch up on to unlucky players
5) Implement some additional PC game rules
6) Increase realism and players interaction
7) General game speed up (slowed down by new rules)
8) Better time management in slow phases or deadlocks
9) Having more "suspence" with destabilizing or unpredictable events
10) Increase simultaneous player goals
As a result, for who already knows the original boardgame, these are the new features of Civ CHR:
Game setup
Greatly reduced initial luck to avoid excessive differences among players.
Civilizations
It is now possibile to choose a civilization type and obtain relative bonuses during the whole play session. There are 7 civilization types available.
Governments
Every player can choose to adopt a government type for his civilization at any time accepting pros and cons. This variant makes the boardgame more closer to the original PC game.
Strategy cards
These cards are mini objectives that, if completed, reward players with a lot of different prizes like gold, units, special bonuses and more.
War and rewards
With these new rules you can land and bombard with fleets and retreat with any unit. War is now more complex and strategically more interesting. If you win or just partecipate in a battle you get experience points that can be used later to get interesting prizes: a good reason to go to war. Even settlers can be captured!
Roads, railroads, docks and airports
It is now possible to build roads and upgrade it to railroads. Roads and railroads are used to speed up movements and commerce. A road represent also a dock and a railroad represent also an airport used to launch fleets and airplanes.
Resources
Gems and Wine are not the only worth having resources. Others resources have also special bonuses, depending on the Era.
Prospection & Terraforming
You can now prospect empty regions to have a second chance to discover something.
With terraforming you can even improve deserts, forests and mountains.
Barbarians & Civil war
When you discover a Minor Civilization you can encounter hostile barbarians.
During the early eras you can experience a civil war in your unhappy settlements.
Revolts
In unhappy cities you can experience revolts if you have a certain type of government, civilization, or military absence.
Revolutions
With some governments if you have more unhappy cities than happy ones your civilization will automatically engage a revolution.
Intelligence
Spies are now part of the game set. You can try to accomplish tricky missions to damage your opponents or as a support for war.
Obsolescence
City improvements do not cease to be useful after changing Era. Previous Era improvements have half value; you need two of them to make a city happy or productive. Improvements older that 2 Eras have to be considered obsolete and therefore eliminated.
Military units will never get obsolete.
Capital
Every player owns a Capital. This city is important for commerce, intelligence activity and other aspects.
Cultural influence
It is now possible to assimilate cities. If you are culturally advanced you can assimilate a city just being close to it. No military units are strictly necessary to get the job done.
Commerce
Commerce phase has been deeply revised to make trading more realistic and not feasible at every time and place
Unit upgrades
In addition to sell old units you can upgrade it, saving gold: restrictions apply.
Timed phases
Slow phases may be shortened using an hourglass: push on players who think about doing their moves just in their turn while in the rest of the game they are thinking to something else.
Fast startup
Some rules have been slightly modified to make the Ancient and Medieval Era shorter to play.
Spend most your playing time in last two Eras that are strategically more interesting.
Luxury and waste
Who earns a lot of gold is proportionally penalized with waste and luxury. This limitation helps other players to have a chance to gain some "positions" compared to rich civilizations that are earning more and more and are theoretically unreachable.
Nuclear weapons
After Fission discover who owns Rare Metals can build nuclear weapons.
Events
At each turn it can happen a good or bad event for any region or player. Among bad events there are natural disasters like volcanoes, hurricanes, plagues, etc. Depending on the intensity roll the natural event can be light or devastating. Certain type of events can subvert the game flow.
Who was eagerly waiting for a new game based on Civilization or was thinking that the original rules were in some way incomplete or buggy, now he can bring new life to his old box!
Note: this is not the one and only rewrite of this boardgame, you can find more on this page http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3633 and even here on Civ Fanatics http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=273983
The main difference between Civ CHR and other mods is game weight intended as complexity and length: if you want an epic civ experience go with Civ CHR, if you like more a light experience go with the other mods.
Enjoy!
Stefano Coletta
(CHR game designer)
